The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls

Author: Valorie Lee Schaefer

Publishing:  Pleasant Company Publications

Number of Pages: Hardcover—104 pages

Genre:  Reference Book—Nonfiction

Reading Level:  Ages 9-12

Summary: This book is about all sorts of things.  It is a great reference book for girls to use as they are just hitting puberty and starting to experience all these different changes.  It talks about everything from hygiene like hair care and skin and teeth care to things like feelings and growing up.  It includes stuff about growing bodies like growing breasts and all other parts of the body growing.  It also teaches and gives tips about eating and being nutritious.  Another thing that it focuses on are things like the pubic are and starting your period.  Last it talks about things like sports and sleep troubles.  This book covers almost anything that a girl hitting puberty would need to know about.  It would be a great reference book for girls because a lot of times they know stuff about one thing but then don’t know about another thing so this could easily help them find exactly what they need and they could learn about it.  It also does a great job at comforting a girl who is new to all of these changes.  I can see how this book would be greatly beneficial to many girls hitting puberty.

My Reaction to the Book:  I thought that this was a very interesting book.  I can see how it would be extremely helpful to a young girl who either does not have someone to talk to about these types of thing, or someone who is too shy, or if they just want a little more information on everything.  It was a good book though for referring to in times of questions and needs!

Potential Problems:  There are a couple problems with this book.  It talks about pubic hair and shows a picture of a cartoon girl who doesn’t have any pants or panties on but in the picture she is putting on her panties (it shows her pubic hair).  It also talks very blatantly about the vagina and discharge which I can see being a definite problem for girls especially younger ones that read it (I think 9 may be a little too young).  It talks about girls’ periods and what to use when that time comes, which also may be a little bit older material than would be appropriate for younger girls.  There is one page that I think is quite unnecessary but I suppose it could be helpful.  It shows a girl sitting on a toilet putting a tampon in (it is a cartoon girl).  It goes into great detail on what to do when doing this and I think that the pictures are a little unnecessary especially for girls that are younger—but I can see how it could be helpful for some.

Recommendations:  I think I would recommend this to girls that at the point of hitting puberty.  I think it definitely is a helpful book, but I don’t think it is appropriate for a 9 or 10 year old unless they have already hit puberty.